A small, gregarious, smooth, submerged or partly submerged, aquatic herb 10 to 20 centimeters in height; stems are slender, erect, simple, or diffusely branched. Leaves are whorls, pinnatifid, and 6 to 18 millimeters long; leaves under water are opposite. Flowers are pale purple or pale violet, and borne singly in the axils of the leaves; calyx is 3 to 4 millimeters long, rarely larger, and hemispheric in fruit, with ovate lobes; corolla is 10 to 12 millimeters long. Capsule compressed ellipsoid to subglobose, 3.5 mm long, dark brown.

Antiseptic (plant)

Bureau of Plant Industry
PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

An infusion of the leaves is used for stomach problems including diarrhoea and dyspepsia. The juice of the plant is rubbed on the body against strong fevers. A liniment is made from the plant with coconut oil and used in elephantiasis.